Oct/090
Are you ready for the holiday season?
The holidays are just around the corner, and customers worldwide are forecast to spend more online than ever this year. Now is the perfect time to make sure your webstore is ready because there is much you can do to gain an advantage over your competitors!
Don’t let the gloomy economy discourage you: Nitrosell eCommerce retailers play a crucial role, whether in mainstream or specialty retail. Each year, we see a rise in the number of customers shopping online and the next couple of months are an ideal time to get ready and make 2009 a success!
- Be prepared for success: planning is the first step in any e-mail marketing program. You should make yourself aware of the trends, failures and successes of the previous year. Know the peak online shopping days – these are often very different to in-store trading times because shoppers are typically online in the evenings and weekends.
- Display special offers and featured products on your home page: avoid overwhelming people, but show enough for them to see that you have great deals! Ensure you include related items (on product pages) that encourage sales of additional products.
- Be sure to start early: e-mail campaigns need to start as early as this month, with advance discounts and information on new products. Using Constant Contact will make this easy. Keep in touch with your customers and let them know – if you’re not talking with them, someone else will be!
- Clarify your delivery policies: are your times and dates accurate? Customers will be more anxious than at other times in the year! Avoid disappointment by clearly showing the last date for ordering before each holiday. Get your customers to spend more by offering free delivery. For example, you could offer free delivery over a minimum spend of, for example, $150 or £100.
- Your retail store should SHOUT about your webstore… on store banners, till receipts, carrier bags and any other advertising avenues! Don’t forget: Nitrosell eCommerce promotion codes are a great way of incentivizing your customers to visit your webstore! Offering small discount will encourage customers to shop online for the first time.
- What about product data? Is it comprehensive enough? Would you buy that item based on that extended description? Lack of information translates to lack of sales. Furthermore, user-driven content, such as ratings and reviews, provide credible product information that customers crave! Can your Images be improved? An item with a fuzzy, out-of-focus image will not sell and does not instill confidence! This is crucial to effective online selling.
- Customer service is essential, especially as the big day approaches and customers need to feel supported! A phone number is very important – this should be clearly visible on your site; ensure shoppers can easily find your returns policy – it will give them the assurance to make purchases with confidence!
- Decorate your webstore: in the same way that shop windows in main street – and the high street in the UK! – are decorated for the holidays, your web storefront can inspire seasonal spirit. Changing your webstore banner (header images) is exceptionally easy with Nitrosell eCommerce and will keep your site looking lively and dynamic!
Jul/091
If you’re new to the world of eCommerce, it can be a daunting place: new concepts to grasp, new processes to understand, and important decisions to make that will ultimately determine your success. That’s why we’ve spent years perfecting our implementation service, to guide you through every step and, crucially, to ensure you maximize your return on investment (ROI).
An area that often confounds retailers is go live readiness. We’ve found customers who rush to go live, with poor quality product data, or insufficient information about the store, and, on the other extreme, those who spend months tirelessly perfecting every detail. Of course, there is a balance to be struck, and timing is everything!
With that in mind, here’s our take, directly from NitroSell’s implementation best practices:
- Go live early: aim to go live 1-3 months after your staging store activation date. Going live in 1-3 weeks is possible, but isn’t realistic unless you are exceptionally well prepared and have plenty of spare time. Going live any later than 3 months after activation will have a negative effect on your ROI;
- Be decisive: using competitive analysis and other (basic) marketing techniques, quickly identify and decide on what matters for your webstore — navigation structure, payment gateway(s), domain selection, tax and shipping, e-mail configuration, and the look & feel. Making these choices sooner enables you to focus on the main body of work;
- Iterate: start with a small percentage of your items and populate the web attributes comprehensively. For instance, if your store has 1,000 products, start with 50, or 100, and perfect the product information, including images, brand, theme, product name (using WebDescription), extended description, pricing and quantity info;
- Test: once you’ve gone live with your initial set of items, consider spending a little on a pay per click (PPC) ad campaign with AdWords or Microsoft adCenter. Using Google Analytics eCommerce tracking (which works automatically with your webstore), you can quickly and easily identify what’s selling. Armed with that knowledge, add similar products to those that are selling well in your next iteration;
- Build: the single biggest killer of web sales is neglect. As your webstore’s revenue grows, continue to build on your initial efforts. Schedule some time every week to work on your store and grow your new web business.
That’s it!
As always, questions and comments are welcome! Please feel free to leave a comment below, or to open a ticket on our Partner Portal.